Running Tales ......

So training is going pretty well and I'm up to 9 miles now.

I'm not really worried about my time to be fair I'll just be happy to finish the 13.1 miles in one piece.

Mr A year in the life has been helping out with training by being a support rider on the bike, he wears the Macmillan's tee shirt I had printed with my text code on the back to get the message out.

A few weeks ago I ran a 10K that was organised by womens running - I enjoyed it so much that I've entered another one in Nottingham on the 19th July. I have to admit one of the main reasons for choosing Nottingham is because its by the river and so flat !!! 

I HATE hills !!!!!

I had my 2 girls at the finish as a cheering squad and finished in 1.09.35 which I was really happy with considering the hills at Sutton Park - hence the flat Nottingham run.

The day after the 10K I took part in Race for Life as part of Team Viki's Breasties.

 A group of us walked the course with Viki our friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and has been receiving treatment since then and we are all incredibly proud of her. We had a fab day the weather was gorgeous and we had a picnic in the park afterwards to celebrate.  

So that's my training update - if you can spare £1 then please do as it says on the tee shirt and send that text !!! 

speak soon
lots of love
K x

Absent Blogger

Sooooooo.....how are you all ?  <stares at the floor> i wasn't really very goo d at this blogging lark and also had an amazing year of birthdayness that it sort of got pushed to the back of my mind really.

So ...I'm back with more adventures and I'll try and catch up on a few of the things I just toally missed out telling you all.

First things first I'm now 41 so I shall we changing the blog name ( if that's possible , I shall investigate), secondly I have moved jobs, I'm still in Sales but for a different company called Uvex who make safety equipment, most notiably ski goggles and helmets.

And my big news is......<drum roll> I'm running the Bupa Birmingham Half Marathon in October. So there will be lots of posts about my training and suffering and struggles - I'm not a natural runner at all so its proving pretty hard work.

So thats it and in the words of Take That  I'm back for good.

See ya soon

K
x

Dad......

Today is fathers day.....I lost my dad 8 months ago tomorrow.

He was the best, kindest, most brilliant dad and grandad ever and nothing will ever replace him....
Miss you more than words can say Dad... x
K
X

RIP DAD X 

Shaggy Dog Story ....

On Sunday I went to St Bee's beach in Cumbria with my mom to take Leo for a run on the beach.

You can't let the little bugger off because he'd never be seen again so he has a long extending lead.

He loves the sea and it wasn't long before he was right in there with poor mom trailing behind.

I have a pretty good camera that the Mr bought me for my birthday and I've started trying to keep it with me, fortunately I had it and got some great shots of them both.

It was nice to see my mom so carefree and happy. She's struggled since losing dad and by her own admission has found it hard to move on, but she seems to have negotiated a little bend in the road of late and hopefully her and Leo can build on that.

Leo chased stones, dug holes and generally got into a state but a good hour or so was had by all even if we did bring half the beach back with us !!


K
x
 

France.....part 3

Bonjour

Well finally the last part of my trip to France. You can tell I'm home and have no time again!

So whilst in France we went to the monkey forest just outside Rocamadour and it was THE best experience ever.
We have a monkey forest near to us at home but we have never gone - something I will be rectifying this summer....

The monkeys were all roaming around freely albeit in an area that did have fences but they were not obtrusive at all and the area was very large.
We were asked if we wanted to feed the monkeys when we went in and they gave us some plain popcorn only a small amount each I assume so they don't get too chubby.

The monkeys were so cute and funny and the babies were the cutest of all. One little baby wanted to hold your hand is it took the popcorn - I guess just in case you tried to take it back.
I don't know what it is about monkeys - maybe its because they are so close to us but they were fascinating to me and they seemed fascinated in us but I think the popcorn helped them...lol

There was a really old one whose eyes were all glassy and he looked just like a little old man sat on the wall watching the kids running about like nutters after the popcorn, he really made me smile.

We had a great week in France, as ever and exploring the Dordogne was heavenly and the fields and fields of poppy's we saw were beautiful, we'll definitely be going back again.

On the way back home we managed for the first time ever to get on the outer ring road at Paris with the aid of just the map and my instincts so I never did get that picture of the Eiffel Tower unfortunately, there's always next time.....

Au revoir mon amis ......

K
x

Lost In France ...Part 2 Rocamadour

Bonjour mon amis

I'm back again....
This one won't be as long as the last one I promise....

So far we have visited a few sites in the Dordogne Lot area, one recommended to me as a must see was Rocamdour which is a town in the hillside complete with castle.


 So with trusty AA map in hand off we went. I can only say I was impressed with both the drive and the area and can definitely recommend a visit.


We had the choice to park at the top by the castle ramparts or down below in the car park area and take le Petit Train up into the town, needless to say we chose the lower car park and ticket in hand boarded Le petit train for our ride to the top.

At the top we were greeted with a wonderful old street filled with shops selling the usual tourist nick knacks,  Foie Gras which is a delicacy of the area - one i've never tried and I'm not sure I'd like to given the price of it!  Coffee shops and restaurants a plenty mingled in with the odd chocolate shop and clothing boutique.  But the real beauty lay upwards....up towards the sky line. The buildings were magnificent and made up of a collection of church buildings belonging to the sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the castle which sat right at the top overlooking everything else.
Walking over the cobbled streets it was amazing to think that people had been doing that since 1166 - if those walls could talk....

I love history and nothing pleases me more than a good ramble round an old house , church, castle or indeed ruin with camera in hand.
I know England has a fine tradition of preserving old places but no one does a Châteaux like the French.

We wandered around the streets for a while, pain du chocolate in hand, then soon tummy,  then climbed the 217 steps upwards towards the castle buildings. Reaching the top of the stairs we were then faced with a  sloping walkway that criss crossed backwards and forwards rising around 200ft.
This successfully negotiated we reached the top and the castle ramparts, and this is where frustration and disappointment kicked in. The ramparts were accessible but via an unmanned turnstile which was coin operated - something they don't tell you about at the bottom, and as we had only 1 €1 coin on us and the small and very reasonable charge was €2 each we were forced to turn around a amble back down again.
Not that we let that distract from the lovely time we had at all - so just a note to you all if you do ever find yourself assending 400ft up to the ramparts remember to take some change with you !

Fortified with a café au lait we boarded the petit train back down to the car park and set off on another adventure.....

K
x

Lost In France ....Part 1

Hi
On Sunday just past we headed off to France on our yearly visit, we didn't come last last for reasons regular readers will know so its been a while.

We like to visit different parts and so this time its the Dordogne - Sarlat to be precise.

We travelled by DFDS ferry which was offering the best deal at the time of booking. what we hadn't considered was the champions league final the night before.....the ferry was full of returning German football fans. Half dressed in bright yellow and the other half in red. All equally loud and noisy, singing , chanting and at one point doing the conga round the boat luckily it all seemed to be in good humour, which was just as well as I was slight hung over from a wedding the previous night and only getting through with Starbucks and paracetamol....  but back to DFDS - we've never used them before and it was perfectly fine although if I'm honest I prefer P&O if only for the on board shopping ! suffice to say I managed to get Calais without buying anything ....which was a shame, because what we really needed was a Sat Nav with France on !!!
We have said technology, but unfortunately Mr a year in the life had not bought that one with him in error and had the UK & Ireland one with him.

But luck was on our side and we did happen to have in the car the trusty AA big road atlas of France that has got us out of many a sticky situation, in fact this was the updated 2011 version bought on our last trip for reasons I can't recall.....


I am an excellent map reader and as long as I have map in hand we very very rarely get misplaced.
This time was no exception and I managed to navigate us to Paris - which given the amount of times we've done it isn't hard at all to be fair, and there the fun started. Paris is a nightmare to navigate, they have a 'peripherique' which is similar to the M25 but not as easy to actually get on , and in France if you miss your turn that's it, you're done for!
I have a pretty good memory and visually if i've seen something before I usually remember it so with that in mind, the map and pure instincts we tried to circumnavigate Paris on what we hoped was a quiet Sunday afternoon....

Half an hour later, a glorious view of the Tower they call Eiffel (camera was in the boot !!! arrghh ) and a few turn right instructions given whilst praying I was correct, we passed through Paris and out onto the other side.

2 hours later we were at our half way stop over at the Auburge á la Tete de Lard in La Ferté-Imbault which was a lovely traditional hotel in a very small village but more than suited our needs for a stop over in a comfy bed with a bottle of beer out of the mini bar.

Luckily the onward journey was pretty much a straight road and at 10am we set off from our comfy stopover and arrived after much beautiful French scenery at our destination La Palombiere campsite at St Nathaléne just outside Sarlat.

I'll post part 2 tomorrow - must dash there's a pain du chocolate with my name on it .....

K
x